Whicker: UCLA's supporting cast depleted

UCLA guard David Brown suffered an injury in practice that should keep him on the court against Minnesota. MARK J. TERRILL., THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN, Texas – It has come to this at UCLA. The Bruins are now missing a player that most people don't even know they have.

David Brown, Mater Dei '11, has not played a minute for the Bruins since Dec. 28. This week, his ship came in. Unfortunately he got caught in the propeller.

Ben Howland said Thursday that he'll use seven players against Minnesota in UCLA's first NCAA Tournament game Friday.

With Jordan Adams injured, Brown figured he might be No. 8. But it will be difficult for him to get past security, much less the scorer's table, with the boot on his ankle and the splint on his thumb.

"We would bring in Sooren (Derboghosian) as our big, and we'd probably move Aubrey (Williams) at our small right now," Howland said. "David sustained a sprained ankle at yesterday's practice. Otherwise it would have been him."

Brown also sprained his thumb a couple of days before that.

"The thumb is all right, it's just a little soft cast," he said, before UCLA's run-through at the Erwin Center. "The ankle is pretty good. Coach has been telling me to be ready to go in case something happens."

And then something happened.

Actually the Bruins can make the seven-man thing work, barring concentrated foul trouble or another injury.

As you might have noticed while watching the Madness, the games feature more stoppages than the Garden Grove Freeway project. This is the season where you sit for two minutes, run a play, then sit for two more minutes, so the NCAA's corporate partners can sell more stuff.

Maybe that's the reason the tournament itself has become such a drag. Or the reason why the networks have to go back to the '80s to find truly magic moments.

In any case Brown came closer to the bright lights than he would have at UC San Diego or Columbia, the schools he turned down to be a UCLA walk-on.

These Bruins wouldn't be the first all-stars Brown has directed. At Mater Dei he ran a show that included Xavier Johnson (who is here with Colorado, which plays Illinois on Friday), Katin Reinhardt, Stanley Johnson and Jordan Strawberry.

The 2011 Monarchs lost in the CIF-Southern Section semifinals but knocked off Long Beach Poly and Centennial of Corona in the regionals, then won a state championship.

"He really understood what that position is like," Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight said. "There's a lot of big egos on any basketball team, but David wouldn't give you the ball just because you complained you weren't getting it. He usually made the right decision and he had the toughness to get their respect."

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